Pursuit policies

State laws and guidelines have for years aimed to minimize the risks of police pursuits to officers, suspects, bystanders and property.

The state's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training provides guidelines to local agencies. In 2006, Senate Bill 719 increased penalties for fleeing in a vehicle from police to up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Law enforcement agencies are also required to implement pursuit policies and yearly training or lose their immunity to lawsuits related to pursuit injuries or damages.

In initiating a pursuit, officers should consider factors such as public safety, the nature of the criminal offense and the location of the pursuit, the state guidelines advise. Those considerations should include whether the area is near a school zone, playground or residential area. The same factors should go into determining a reasonable speed for the pursuit and the hazards to bystanders.

In 2012, 298 police pursuits took place in Orange County. About half lasted only one or two minutes, according to data collected by the California Highway Patrol. Statewide, 6,444 pursuits took place in 2012 and most lasted the same length of time.

Around the state, 12 uninvolved bystanders were killed in pursuits in 2012. Orange County did not see any fatalities of bystanders that year, though 22 uninvolved people were injured as the result of a pursuit.

Pending case

The last high-profile death during a pursuit occured in May 2013, when the co-founder of Oculus VR, a popular Irvine-based virtual reality company, was struck and killed by a vehicle fleeing from Santa Ana police. The officers had contacted a group of suspected gang members who they believe were involved in illegal activity, when they alleged that one of the men attacked police and an officer involved shooting ensued. Three men sped off in a Dodge Charger, with police in pursuit. During the chase, the Charger struck and killed Andrew Reisse, 33, who was in a crosswalk.

Reisse’s family earlier this year filed a civil suit against the three men in the Charger, who were arrested and charged following the chase. The suit also named the city of Santa Ana and several other public agencies as defendent’s. The wrongful death lawsuit alleged that the city and other defendent’s “breached their applicable duty of care” by, among other things, not falling back from the chase and not avoiding a role in Reisse’s death.

WESTMINSTER – All morning Friday from her hospital bed, Helen Nguyen kept asking about her daughter.

“Please help her,” Nguyen pleaded to several relatives who crowded into her room at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

She made the same plea to doctors and nurses as they tended to her numerous facial cuts and a welt on her forehead.

Then, at about 12:30 p.m. Friday, after doctors had given him the green light, Helen’s husband, Thomas Nguyen, broke the news to his wife.

“Vivian will be asleep,” Thomas Nguyen told her in Vietnamese. “A long sleep.

“We have to be strong and take care of William.”

Vivian Nguyen, 12, a vibrant seventh grader who liked to draw pandas and joke with friends, died Thursday night after a collision that occurred during a high-speed police pursuit in Westminster.

The crash, in which the Nguyen’s minivan was broad-sided by a Chevrolet Suburban around 6 p.m. Thursday, also left Vivian’s brother, William Nguyen, 13, hospitalized in critical condition, and their mother, Helen, in serious condition with lacerations to her face and head. Both are expected to recover.

The driver of the Suburban, Aleksandar Apostoloic, 26, was arrested midnight Thursday on suspicion of murder, assault with a deadly weapon and felony evasion, as well as warrants for weapons violations and narcotics trafficking.

As news spread Friday, the community mourned Vivian’s death. A collection of flowers, notes, stuffed animals and candles grew around a stop sign into the evening.

A distraught classmate left a bouquet of mixed flowers at the site.

“She was the best person you could ever have as a friend,“ said a weeping Ivette Navarrete, a seventh-grader.

Ivette described Vivian as kind, funny and artistic.

The high-speed crash, a block from a school zone and amid cul-de-sacs of neat ranch houses, also left neighbors shocked. As the Nguyen family grieved, counselors were made available to students and staff at Johnson Middle School, where Vivian attended.

“(Vivian) always looked out for her friends, and was a positive influence on the school community,” Johnson Principal Andre Illig said.

Vivian’s father, Thomas Nguyen, an engineer, had just returned from a memorial at an intersection near where the collision took place.

Thomas placed Vivian’s school photo and sticks of incense at the small memorial. Then, crying, he said:

A mourner says a Buddhist prayer at a memorial near the scene of the crash that killed Vivian Uyen Nguyen. BILL ALKOFER, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Vivian Nguyen, 12, died after a driver fleeing police crashed into her family's minivan Thursday evening, according to officials. Photo Courtesy of the Nguyen Family Courtesy of the Nguyen Family
A police accident investigator takes photographs after a fatal crash Thursday night in Westminster. KEVIN WARN, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
A California Highway Patrol officer marks skid marks after a deadly crash in Westminster. A man being chased by police slammed his vehicle into a family's van, police said. KEVIN WARN, KEVIN WARN, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Sandra Bustamante holds her five-year old Zoe close as Miguel joins the family at the small street memorial Friday afternoon for 12-year-old Vivian Nguyen who died in Westminster when a driver fleeing police crashed into her family•s minivan Thursday evening. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Clothing is scattered on Trask Avenue in Westminster after a fatal crash involving a man being chased by police. KEVIN WARN, KEVIN WARN, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
A candle memorial is set up on Trask Avenue, the site of a crash in which a 12-year-old girl was fatally injured. KEVIN WARN, KEVIN WARN, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Vivian Uyen Nguyen's classmates from Johnson Middle School console each other at the end of the school day. BILL ALKOFER, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Vivan Uyen Nguyen's uncles Charles Nguyen (left) and Vu Nguyen talk about their niece at Peek Funeral Home. BILL ALKOFER, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Mourners signed a piece of paper attached to a pole at a memorial near the crash site. BILL ALKOFER, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Clothes are scattered on Trask Avenue in Westminster after a fatal crash involving a police pursuit. KEVIN WARN, KEVIN WARN, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Area resident Sandra Do, 18, leaves flowers Friday afternoon at a small street memorial for 12-year-old Vivian Nguyen who died in Westminster when a driver fleeing police crashed into her family's minivan Thursday evening. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A small street memorial is set up Friday near where a 12-year-old girl died in Westminster when a driver fleeing police crashed into her family's minivan. KEN STEINHARDT, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A 12-year-old girl was fatally injured and her mother and 13-year-old brother were hurt in when a man fleeing police crashed his Chevy Suburban into their minivan Thursday night, police said. KEVIN WARN, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
A school bus drives past as children see the small street memorial Friday afternoon for 12-year-old Vivian Nguyen who died in Westminster when a driver fleeing police crashed into her family•s minivan Thursday evening. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
An investigator takes photos of the wreckage after a man fleeing police crashed his Chevy Suburban into a family's minivan. A 12-year-old girl was killed and her mother and 13-year-old brother were injured. The pursuit started around 6 p.m. Thursday in Westminster. KEVIN WARN, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
A Chevy Suburban driven by a man fleeing police flipped after hitting other vehicles, officials said. KEVIN WARN, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
California Highway Patrol and police investigators look over evidence after a fatal crash involving a man who fled police. KEVIN WARN, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

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